Tuesday, 9 May 2017

Profile - Sherlock

Subtlety was never a priority for the creators
of the multitudinous Cheeky's Week cast, so when the decision was
made to include an aspiring detective among the ranks of the toothy
funster's pals, said sleuth was equipped with a deerstalker hat,
magnifying glass and named Sherlock.

Cheeky's investigative chum made his debut in
the first issue of Krazy.

Krazy issue 1, 16 October 1976
Art: Frank McDiarmid

Sherlock's powers of deduction in his first appearance were positively Holmesian compared to those on display during his run in Cheeky Weekly. Although he did get a mention in the first
issue of the toothy funster's comic, it wasn't until issue 7 that Sherlock actually appeared, cropping up on
Friday and again on Saturday.

In the comic dated 24 June 1978Petula
recruited Sherlock to find a missing elephant, (no, not that one - his adventures didn't start until September that year) and the tiny 'tec's search
continued in the following edition. Despite appearing on 5 pages in
that issue, Sherlock was unable to locate the errant pachyderm, which
had spent the week on Krazy Town High Street inside a cosy created for it by the agile knitting needles of
Granny Gumdrop.

Art: Mike Lacey

It seems that Petula was rather lax in securing
her betrunked pet, as Sherlock was again on its trail in the comic
dated 05 August 1978. The success or otherwise of his search was on
this occasion not disclosed.

The youthful gumshoe was the subject of the Burpo Special
in the comic dated 30 June 1979.

Art: Mike Lacey

Prior to his appearance in Cheeky Weekly dated
31 December 1977, Sherlock was always depicted with pupils in the
centre of his eyes, as are many comic characters. However in the
aforementioned issue, Frank McDiarmid drew the junior sleuth's eyes
as black ovals with no white of the eyes showing. When Frank next
drew Sherlock, on the cover of the 10 June 1978 comic, he included
whites, but when depicting the young investigator on 5 pages in
Cheeky Weekly dated 01 July 1978, Frank showed him on some pages with
whites around his pupils and on others without. All Frank's
subsequent renderings of Sherlock included whites. Mike Lacey always
drew Cheeky's sleuthing pal without whites, whereas Barrie Appleby
drew him on some occasions with and on others without.

The daft detective's final Cheeky Weekly
appearance was in the issue dated 19 January 1980, concluding a run during which he appeared in 47 issues.